"Indian boarding schools were the lynchpins of a federally sponsored system of forced assimilation. These schools, located off-reservation, took Native children from their families and tribes for years at a time in an effort to "kill" their tribal cultures, languages, and religions. In Learning to Write "Indian," Amelia V. Katanski examines a range of writings that portray the Indian boarding-school experience - from descriptions of life within the Indian boarding school to accounts of the lasting impact this widespread government policy has had on generations of American Indian people." "Katanski investigates the impact of the Indian boarding-school experience on the American Indian literary tradition through an examination of turn-of-the-century student essays and autobiographies as well as contemporary plays, novels, and poetry."--Jacket.